Sinkhole risk in Nuckolls County, NE: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

Soluble rock at the surface or under thin cover in part of the county.

On soluble rock: 52%
At or near the surface: 52%
Buried under cover: 0%

The next step for one property

Check the parcel against your state survey sinkhole map, and ask for an inspection if cracks, depressions or sticking doors show up.

That works out to roughly 300 of Nuckolls County's 575 square miles on soluble rock, 300 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 4,094 residents (7 per square mile), much of the land is open, and the mapped rock may sit far from where people actually live. The figures come from 414 map points about 1.2 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Nuckolls County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Franklin County, NE, about 48 miles west. 5 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Thayer County, NE 24 mi east · 2% at surface
Webster County, NE 24 mi west · 78% at surface
Clay County, NE 24 mi north · 60% at surface
Jewell County, KS 29 mi south · 32% at surface
Republic County, KS 32 mi southeast · 19% at surface
Adams County, NE 34 mi northwest · 79% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Niobrara Formation (limestone), Late Cretaceous in age, covering about 52% of the county.

Against the rest of Nebraska

Nuckolls County ranks 8 of 93 in Nebraska for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 88% of US counties on that measure.